Dell Optiplex 790 review

We’ve been regularly impressed by the practical designs of Dell’s OptiPlex range, but the new OptiPlex 790 is a novelty – it’s one of the smallest business PCs we’ve seen.

Though it may look like a toy, it’s far from flimsy. Businesslike plastic façade aside, the chassis is built from sturdy sheet metal. Its solid construction and matte finish give reassurance that the OptiPlex will withstand the knocks and scuffs of office life as well as its larger cousins.

It has a decent amount of power too. Our review sample featured a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2400S – the suffix signifying the low-power version of Intel’s 32nm chip. It still has Turbo Boost though, with one core able to reach a maximum of 3.3GHz. In our Real World Benchmarks the system achieved an overall score of 0.7, indicating plenty of power for desktop applications – though it’s some distance behind the 0.9 and above we’d expect from a full-power Core i5-2500 system.

The integrated HD Graphics 2000 chip is also more than ample for office tasks, but it won’t allow for after-hours gaming. It proved a little shaky when running 1080p clips, too, although 720p footage played flawlessly.

Still, the big advantage of this lightweight CPU is very low power consumption. Using an inline power meter we recorded our review system idling at only 15W, rising to a still frugal 51W during stress tests.

Another interesting component is the Seagate Momentus XT hard disk – a hybrid drive offering 500GB of platter-based storage, supplemented with 4GB of solid-state memory as a hard disk cache. It’s a similar idea to Intel’s Smart Response Technology (ISRT), featured in the recently released Z68 chipset. The real-world effectiveness of such caching systems isn’t always fully captured by benchmarks, but in our tests the Momentus XT achieved average large-file write and read speeds of 152.3MB/sec and 136.8MB/sec. That’s perfectly fast enough for business use, but some way behind our A-List favourite, Samsung’s all-mechanical Spinpoint F3 1TB, which managed 208MB/sec and 138MB/sec.

Beyond that, the standard specification is basic. You get 4GB of RAM but no TPM module or wireless internet. If you wish, when you order, you can step up to a Core i5-2500 or Core i7-2600 processor for an additional £29 or £109 exc VAT, and doubling the memory to 8GB costs an extra £83. More ambitious businesses might even choose the £249 16GB option, or pay a further £178 to switch the hard disk for an 128GB SSD.

The warranty is upgradeable too, although the 3yr on-site package is a generous start. Adding two years to the basic deal costs a further £44 exc VAT, and adding ProSupport – which offers around-the-clock phone support – will cost a further £74 for the 3yr package and £162 for the 5yr warranty.

For companies that perform their own in-house servicing, the OptiPlex 790’s internals are nicely accessible despite the small size. Remove the top panel with a single thumbscrew and the interior is instantly laid bare. Unhooking the clips that hold the front of the case in place is a little tricky, but once it’s done the optical drive and hard disk cage can be easily accessed – and the optical drive can be removed entirely by releasing a springy plastic handle.

It’s just as easy to get at the processor. Once you’ve removed a small handle, the plastic 70mm fan flips upwards at a 90-degree angle to allow access to its screws. Remove these, and the heatsink lifts away from the motherboard, exposing the socket.

Though it’s quick and easy to swap out parts in this way, the OptiPlex’s compact form means there’s necessarily no spare room to install additional components. The two DIMM sockets come pre-filled, and there’s neither space nor connections for extra drives. You can forget about card slots as well.

Despite these limitations, the OptiPlex 790 in its base specification still has plenty of power to get the job done. You’re undoubtedly paying a premium for its tiny dimensions and ingenious design: comparable OptiPlex systems in regular tower cases can be had for £100 less. But if your priority is saving space and energy, this is a very capable and versatile business machine.